“Pollution and climate change by excessive burning of fossil fuels are real threats, not the people who warn that we must take these threats seriously.” – David Suzuki, Canadian Academic & Environmental Broadcaster
“Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse. “ Desmond Tutu, Former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa
“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” – Greta Thunberg, 18 year-old Swedish Activist
A Brief Commentary from Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper
Posted August 16th, 2021 on Niagara At Large
To all of us in Niagara, Ontario and the rest of Canada who may not have wanted a federal election now, but thanks to Justin Trudeau and his Liberals, here we are, here is just one more quote I want to lay on you from one of the many authors around the world of a United Nations report released earlier this August called “Code Red for Humanity” – “There’s really one key message that emerges from this report,” said Kim Cobb, Ph.D., Professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology. “We are out of time.”
We are out of time, indeed. It may already be too damn late.
Even as the list of climate-related disasters in Canada has grown, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals have continued shovelling billions of tax dollars in subsidies and infrastructure work into the ultra-filthy tar sands operations. Under Trudeau, Canada is the only G7 country that is throwing more carbon polluting, climate ravaging garbage into the earth’s atmosphere.
Yet instead of addressing this pressing climate crisis – in the wake of this red-alert UN report, and wild Fires, deadly heat and drought that is costing human lives, destroying whole communities and causing the price of life, including food costs, to soar for the rest of us – here is Justin Trudeau and his Liberals calling an election right now.
When he announced this election after a trip to Rideau Hall this August 15th to receive the consent from a Queen (who probably doesn’t give a rat’s ass what Trudeau is doings here), Trudeau said, among other things, that one of the reasons he is calling a snap election is that ‘Canadians want immediate action on climate change now!”
He is so right, but he and his Liberals, including two in Niagara Ontario, Vance Badawey and Chris Bittle, have had six years to act on climate change now.
Instead, they continued to pour multi-billions of dollars of our tax money into building pipeline and other infrastructure for the tar sands and continuing to subsidize the petro-chemical industry in Canada right up to now.
Through those six years of time, Canada is the only G7 country, including Great Britain, France and the United States, to fall behind in commitments signed in the 2015 Paris Climate agreement to reduce climate-ravaging emissions.
Enough on that now. Niagara At Large will have more to say about the Liberals awful climate change efforts in the days ahead.
What I urge you to do in the meantime is to get engaged and learn all you can about the climate action plans, or lack thereof, of all the parties before you go to the polls this September 20th.
There is no choice left for our future than to vote for parties and politicians in our ridings who take the climate emergency that is already here seriously.
Niagara At Large will have much more to say about this in the days and weeks ahead.
In the meantime, I urge you in this federal election to vote for the party and candidate in your riding who promises to take the most aggressive action to address our climate crisis.
-
Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
For more on the United Nations report, click on – https://niagaraatlarge.com/2021/08/09/startling-united-nations-report-shows-that-the-urgent-actions-proposed-in-ontario-ndps-climate-plan-are-critical/
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
“A Politician Thinks Of The Next Election. A Leader Thinks Of The Next Generation.” – Bernie Sanders
Niagara At Large 